(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Bloomberg
China's military kicked off three days of live-fire military exercises around Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit, even as Taipei played down the impact on flights and shipping.
Live-fire drills in six areas surrounding the island began as planned at noon Thursday, Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The PLA's Eastern Theater Command conducted long-range shooting drills in the Taiwan Strait around 1 p.m. on Thursday, CCTV said, adding that a 'precise strike” was carried out in an unspecified area in the eastern part of the Taiwan Strait. It gave no other details.
China earlier this week warned airlines to avoid 'danger zones” around Taiwan after it announced its most provocative drills in decades in response to Pelosi's visit, including missile tests and live-fire exercises. The No. 3 American official vowed Wednesday during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei that the US wouldn't abandon Taiwan.
While the PLA had said the 'long-range live firing in the Taiwan Strait” and 'regular-guided fire testing in the eastern waters” off Taiwan had begun Tuesday evening, so far the government in Taipei hasn't yet reported any such activity near the island.
China Drills Force Ships to Sail Around Taiwan Danger Zones
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it continues to be on high alert in response to the exercises, which the agency criticized as an attempt to undermine regional stability. Taiwanese Transportation Minister Wang Kwo-tsai said flights could use alternative air routes via Japan and the Philippines until the drills ended Sunday, while ships would be able to avoid the six exclusion zones.
'Shipping is different from air traffic as there is no fixed route -- it's freer,” Wang told reporters at a briefing late Wednesday. 'So what's done in the past is to avoid the areas where drills will take place.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping is under pressure to give a strong response to the trip, particularly after some local nationalists were disappointed that Beijing wasn't able to deter Pelosi from visiting. She left Taiwan on Wednesday and is holding meetings in South Korea on Thursday before heading next to Japan.
Separately, Southeast Asian foreign ministers urged 'maximum restraint” in a statement released during an annual meeting Thursday in Cambodia. Association of Southeast Asian Nations envoys expressed concern that developments 'could destabilize the region and eventually could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts and unpredictable consequences among major powers,” without naming China, Taiwan or the US.
On Wednesday, 27 Chinese military aircraft were detected in the skies around Taiwan's airspace, with 22 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait -- the most since the island began making the maneuvers public in 2020. Separately, Taiwan said it warned off Chinese military drones flying near its Kinmen and Beiding islands -- both of which sit close to the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen -- Wednesday night.
China's national security agency separately detained a Taiwanese man for long-time advocacy of Taiwan independence and founding a Taiwan Nationalist Party, state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday. Beijing has also announced some trade restrictions on Taiwan.
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